Seventeen years ago, an inquiry by Justice Horace Krever recommended
compensation for the thousands of Canadians who had received blood
tainted with HIV and hepatitis C more than a decade prior.

While
much has been done to prevent a similar occurrence in the future - the
establishment of Canadian Blood Services (CBS) and more detailed blood
testing, for example - the former president of Hemophilia Saskatchewan
says many continue to live with the fallout from errors made in the
past.

According to the Canadian Hemophilia Society, more than 1,100 transfused
Canadians were infected with HIV, 700 of whom had hemophilia or other
bleeding disorders. Between 700 and 800 of those people have since died.
The numbers of those infected with hepatitis C are even more alarming
at up to 20,000 people. It isn't known how many have died, but it's
estimated to be in the thousands, the society reports.